Given that the federal government paid for this work - especially the WPA Posters that are in the LOC - wouldn't those be public domain? (the LOC says no known restrictions on republication.)

I'd love to use some of these for other projects. Reading about things like this and the CCC makes me wish we had another Roosevelt around these days.posted by EricGjerde at 9:54 AM on February 7, 2013

EricGjerde, the Library of Congress has the biggest collection of WPA posters (900 of the 2000 or so produced), and says this about rights: "There are no known restrictions on posters made by the Work Projects Administration."

There was one of these in my small-hometown post office. It was inspiring, and (along with the smell of Federal floor wax) encouraged me to misperceive the government (to which I attributed the painting). That became very confusing later on, until I was old enough to really understand what the Little Red Book was all about and why they murdered the IWW in its sleep.posted by Twang at 11:41 AM on February 7, 2013

For the post office murals, at least, the USPS seems to be the rights holder, but does allow some use of the images.

The works were commissioned by the Federal Government, so they are in the public domain. The USPS may try to restrict access but that is not supported by any legitimate rights.posted by charlie don't surf at 8:51 PM on February 8, 2013

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